Indians Split Lions and Crimson

By James Mills | Wednesday, November 19, 1997

On Homecoming, Harvard dominated the Dartmouth defense and halted the offense to hand the Indians their first shutout in 10 years, 24-0. Harvard came to town with an identical winning record, but quickly demonstrated the superiority of both their offense and defense jumping to a 24-0 lead by the end of the second quarter.

Harvard's defense forced 6 turnovers and -3 yards rushing on 24 carries. The Harvard defense forced Peter Sellars '98 to throw five interceptions and forced a fumble as well. The first half was a scoring bonanza for the Crimson, who would have had an much higher score had the Indians played as dismally on defense in the second half as they had in the first. The Crimson scored 17 straight points on three consecutive turnovers, taking the game out of reach for the Indians.

The first score came on the Crimson's second possession when a 7-play, 40-yard drive ended with a 4-yard touchdown run from Terrence Patterson. The Indians seemed ready for reprisal as Sellars marched Dartmouth down the field, completing several long passes to the wideouts. On 3rd and 10 from Harvard's 25-yard-line, however Sellers pass was deflected and picked off by a Crimson lineman. On the very next play, Patterson got the ball on a reverse and ran 63 yards past the defenders for the touchdown. Sellers threw another interception minutes later resulting in a 3-play drive for another 45-yard touchdown run by Patterson. The final score of the game came after Sellers fumbled the ball under pressure, resulting in a drive to within 14 yards of the goal line, and a 22-yard field goal, brining the final goal to 24-0.

In the final 40 minutes of the game the Dartmouth defense regrouped to give their best performance of the season, but all the scoring of the game had been completed and the Indians offense was not able to regroup against the powerful Crimson defense.

The Indians went to Columbia next, expecting a big win after two weeks of losses, and very nearly got beat again. Dartmouth outplayed the inferior Columbia team from start to finish, but two interceptions from Sellers were returned for touchdowns, making the game much closer than it should otherwise have been. The Indians record after the Columbia game stands at 6-2, and 4-1 in the Ivy League. The Indians must beat both Brown and Princeton, and hope Harvard (5-0) loses one of its last two games, for Dartmouth to take the Ivy League title. Harvard's most difficult test will come against Penn next weekend.

Last weekend's game at New York's Baker Field extended Dartmouth's winning streak against Columbia to 26. It was an ugly game throughout. The Indians injured the Lions starting quarterback early, knocking him out of the game. The Indians also forced 6 turnovers, but were unable to convert many of them.

Senior Quarterback Sellers, who has had 8 interceptions in the last two games, didn't take long to turn over some in this game. In the fourth play of the game, he threw a ball into the hands of a defensive Lion, who raced down the sideline for the 73-yard touchdown.

Sellers and the offense quickly retaliated with a 56-yard, 3-minute drive that set up an 8-yard touchdown pass to fullback Bob Corso '98. Unfortunately, the Indians would continue to make mistakes.

A 42-yard pass was called off because of holding and the Indians were then forced to punt. In the first drive of the second quarter, Sellers again handed the Lions a touchdown, with a high toss that got tipped into the hands of a Lion who ran untouched 70 yards for a TD. The score was made14-7 with a successful conversion. But the Dartmouth Defense would soon come up with some big plays. With 10 minutes in the half Steve Varney '00, blind-sided the Columbia quarterback, causing a fumble at the Lions' 28 yard-line and knocking the QB unconscious. The Indians would score with a quick drive and a 14-yard pass to Corso. Just before the half, Dartmouth took the lead, 17-14, with a 9-play, 55-yard drive.

In the second half the Indians started the scoring off when Tom Reusser '00 intercepted a pass and scampered 27 yards to the Lions 3-yard line. Unfortunately, the Indians were unable to score from the 3-yard line and were forced to bring in David Regula '98 for the successful field goal. Regula would score another field goal after the Lions turned over another interception.

In the fourth, the Lions put together a 59-yard drive for a touchdown. With 4 minutes left to go, Columbia started building a drive, but the Indians provd resilient.

They shut the Lions down, keeping them out of field goal range. The Indians held the game, keeping their hope for the championship alive. The Indians remain in second place behind Harvard and tied with Penn.

Men's Soccer

After four yellow cards and a second half rally the Indians surprised the stands of Homecoming crowd with a last minute goal for the win, 3-2, over the Harvard Crimson. Midfielder Chris Pedrick '99 scored two consecutive goals to capture the lead in the Ivy race and making this one of the highest scoring games for the Indians this season. The Indians have become well known for their strong defense and relatively low-scoring games.

Harvard scored the only goal of the first half 17 minutes into the game on a rebound from a save made by goalie Matt Nyman '99.

Chris Dedicik '99 opened up scoring for the Indians in the second half when he found the back of the goal after confronting tough defense right in front of the goal. After only another 18 seconds of play Pedrick, who lead scoring with two of the goals in Sunday's game, fired it past the Harvard goalie after being receiving a pretty pass from Nicholas Magnuson '01 on a cross from Mike Lewis '00. The Crimson responded in a successful free kick that slipped by Nyman and the wall of defenders.

The game looked to be going to overtime, but with under a minute to play Pedrick weaved and outran 4 defenders and the goalie to kick the game winning goal. The homecoming crowd gave him a standing ovation.

The Indians entered their next game against Columbia with a 22-year losing streak and hoped to break it, but were forced to take a tie in a scoreless match in the city.

The tie kept Dartmouth on top of the Ivy League and has put them in position to win it this week if they beat Brown.

Dartmouth had a number of scoring opportunities, but was unable to capitalize on them. Late in the second half, Junior co-captain Brendan sent a header off the goal post. Earlier Dedicik sent a header just wide of the net. Bobby Meyer '99 nearly scored on a cornerkick opportunity. The Indians outshot the Lions, 16-5, and outplayed them on the field, but simply couldn't score.

The Indians will need to start capitalizing if they have any hope of defeating Brown next week. The Indians have not beat or tied Brown in at least 4 years, but are focused to do so this weekend. A win over the bears would give the Indians the Ivy league title and a berth in the NCAA tournament.

Women's Soccer

The Indians lost their last contest to the Harvard Crimson, 1-0, giving them their second consecutive Ivy League title and settling for a 7-7-2 overall record and a 4-2 Ivy League record.

Harvard was unable to get many shots off during the game because of the strong Dartmouth defense. Despite being well defended , Harvard was able to break through the defenses and get a kick past goalie Kristin Luckenbill '01. Harvard took this lead at 36:53 and would enjoy it the rest of the game.

Dartmouth looked like it was going to retaliate when in the second half the Indians unleashed a number of shots and forced three cornerkicks, but was unable to score a goal.

Earlier in the week the Indians had lost another close game against Boston University, 1-0. Boston saved 7 shots on goal during the game and managed to get a shot past Luckenbill after the first half.

The Indians ended the regular season with a win over Columbia and gave them a chance for a bid for the ECAC post-season tournament and have a chance of sharing the Ivy Title with Harvard, if Brown beats them next week.

Dartmouth played a decisive game with a final score of 4-1. Dartmouth played a physically superior first half, outshooting Columbia 9-4, but Columbia played a harder second. The Indians' first strike was Jen Murray '01's kick off a pass from April Rassala '99. Thirty seconds later Michelyne Pinard '98 booted in a penalty kick.

Columbia retaliated with a score two minutes later to cut the lead in half. The Indians once again fired one in with Katy Hearie '99 shot to take the lead to 3-1. Columbia picked up shooting intensity in the second half with 7-4 shots on goal, but were unable to convert any of them because of the quick hands of goalie captain Annie Eckstein.

Jessica Prairie '99 ended the game with a unassisted goal at the 71-minute mark.

Indians Split Lions and Crimson

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